[Markitect]

The maintenance facility was fully funded...back when the state had $810 million for the Milwaukee-Madison leg of the Hiawatha extension. It was to be built in Madison and was expected to be the the maintenance base for a fleet of Midwestern Talgos (the Midwestern states had been cooperatively working on a rail plan using Talgo trains as the basis of their planning...and those subsequently never came to fruition). Then-Gov. Elect Walker refused to use the money for that rail project, so it was taken away. Later he tried to get some of that money back, specifically for building a maintenance base in Milwaukee for the Talgos being built (and now completed) for Wisconsin. That request was denied.

Note that the current Talgo assembly plant on Milwaukee's north side can be converted into a permanent maintenance base...all that's needed is about $30 million or so to convert it--the bulk of that money needed to upgrade track and signaling on the rail line connecting the base to the downtown station. That is quite a bit less than the $55-$63 million estimated to build a maintenance base from scratch (the cost varies depending on the sites being proposed).